Mayor explains initiatives as he prepares for meeting with president

Mayor John Cranley plans to address the city’s long-term unemployment problems with a set of new initiatives, some of which could get support from the White House, he told CityBeat Thursday.One of the initiatives is in direct response to President Barack
Obama’s call, heard by millions during the State of the Union Tuesday,
to get private companies on board with ending discrimination against the
long-term unemployed.Specifically, Cranley says he helped get Procter &
Gamble and other local companies to agree to join the president’s
initiative.“It wasn’t that hard to sell them on it, but they've got a
lot of things going on,” Cranley says. “Getting their attention and
focus on these things is one of the great powers that I have. I can help
ask people to give back in ways they just haven’t thought of before.”With a visit to the White House planned for Friday,
Cranley hopes his quick response to Obama’s call could help the city
land future federal grants for programs that address long-term
unemployment.As an example, Cranley points to a new White House
initiative that asks cities to develop innovative pilot programs that help
the long-term unemployed. The initiative will award federal grants, which Cranley estimates at a couple million
dollars per city, to the 10 best
proposals.In preparation, the city is partnering with several local
organizations, including the Workforce Investment Board and United Way
of Greater Cincinnati, to develop a unique plan. How the city’s proposal
looks ultimately depends on the constraints set by the application
requirements, but Cranley cited more educational opportunities and
subsidies for companies that hire the long-term unemployed as two examples
cities might undertake.The proposal, however it looks, would come in addition to
Cranley’s Hand Up Initiative, which he plans to fund through this year’s
city budget. As part of the initiative, the city will first partner
with Cincinnati Cooks, Cincinnati Works and Solid Opportunities for
Advancement and Retention (SOAR) to provide more job training
opportunities. Participants who graduate from those programs can then
apply to the Transitional Jobs Program, which provides short-term,
part-time work opportunities to people as they look for long-term,
full-time jobs.The initiative will begin as a pilot program for the first two years,
but it could eventually expand with more partnerships and job training
opportunities, according to Cranley.If successfully carried out, Cranley’s proposals could help break the long-term unemployment trends that keep so many Americans jobless in the first place.In one study, Rand Ghayad of Northeastern University sent
out 4,800 fake resumes for 600 job openings. Ghayad found people who had
been out of work for six months or more very rarely got called back, even in comparison to applicants without work experience who were unemployed for shorter periods of time.In other words, diminishing the discrimination on the employer’s side or ongoing joblessness on the potential employee’s side could be enough to land more people in jobs.A proper solution to the issue could also go a long way to picking up the nation’s sluggish job market. By the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ estimate,
nearly 38 percent of the unemployed in December had been unemployed for
27 weeks or longer — the highest rate in six decades. In comparison, the
rate was below 20 percent prior to the recession.For Cranley, the initiatives also present an opportunity to address Cincinnati’s abhorrent poverty rates by giving people a chance to obtain better-paying jobs.“In the end, we want a city that isn’t just good for
future residents,” Cranley says, referencing the economic momentum in
Over-the-Rhine, downtown and uptown that might benefit future
Cincinnatians. “We need a city solution that grows the capacity and
builds the opportunities for residents who are already here and families
that are already dealing with poverty.”

President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union speech
yesterday, outlining an ambitious progressive agenda that will be largely ignored and rebuked by Congress. But Obama promised at least
seven major policies that he can pursue without legislators, including a
$10.10-per-hour minimum wage for federal contractors and some action on
global warming. Obama’s full speech is viewable here, and the
Republican response is available here. The Associated Press fact checked
the speech here.Ky. Gov. Steve Beshear says tolls are necessary to fund
the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge project. Officials and executives
claim the bridge replacement is necessary to improve safety, traffic and
economic development through a key connector between Kentucky and Ohio,
but many Kentucky officials refuse to accept tolls to fund the new
bridge. But without federal funding to pay for the entire project,
leading Ohio and Kentucky officials say they have no other option.There is a 32-point achievement gap in reading between
Ohio’s lower-income and higher-income fourth-graders, with higher-income
students coming out on top. The massive gap speaks to some of the
challenges brought on by income inequality as Ohio officials implement
the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee, which requires most Ohio
third-graders to test as “proficient” before they advance to the fourth
grade. Previous studies also found Ohio’s urban schools might be
unfairly evaluated and under-funded because the state doesn’t properly
account for poverty levels.Attempting to move the Hamilton County Board of Elections
offices from downtown to Mount Airy, where only one bus line runs, could provoke a lawsuit from the NAACP, Board Chairman Tim Burke, a Democrat
who opposes the move, warned in an email to county commissioners. With
the Board of Elections split along party lines on the issue, the final
decision to move or not to move could come down to county commissioners
or Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted. CityBeat covered the issue in further detail here.Greater Cincinnati added 6,600 jobs between December and December 2012.Temperatures could hit the 30s and 40s this weekend, offering a reprieve to the extreme cold.Ohio’s auditor of state found a “top-down culture of data
manipulation and employee intimidation” at Columbus City School
District.Cincinnati-based Kroger plans to add 227 stores with its acquisition of Harris Teeter.The University of Cincinnati expects to demolish its
Campus Services Building at Reading Road and Lincoln Avenue — formerly a
Sears department store — this summer.A Republican congressman from New York City physically threatened a reporter after an interview.Birmingham, Ala., really can’t handle snow.A lawsuit alleges NASA is failing to investigate alien life.Follow CityBeat on Twitter:• Main: @CityBeatCincy • News: @CityBeat_News • Music: @CityBeatMusic • German Lopez: @germanrlopez

President says staff will go on to do “amazing things”

Just a day after securing his next four-year term, President Barack Obama had a heartfelt moment with campaign volunteers in Chicago. While thanking his staff, Obama said they were better than he was when he compared their experiences and accomplishments to what he did as a community organizer in the 1980s. He said he had no doubt his staff would go on to do “amazing things.”The Obama team has gained fame for its highly advanced campaign. It used a team of data crunchers for almost every decision, which TIME covered in a post-election look.Watch the video:

JEAN SCHMIDT: Poor Jean, she just can’t seem to keep herself off our list. Just a week after her embarrassing testimony in an Ohio Elections Commission complaint she filed against an opponent, the sour-looking congresswoman drew nationwide scorn for an incident caught on video by Think Progress.

Living in a recession is hard. We at WWE! have already sold a kidney to pay for ramen and Playboy, and we can still only afford to drink Natty Light (in bottles when we feel like classing it up or we have a lady friend over).

It shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that — some 140 days or so after he took office — President Obama has acted in a way on two important issues that shakes the confidence placed in him by many supporters. As I told some skeptical Democratic friends during the weeks after the election, Obama might have campaigned as a progressive to shore up support, but he’s really more of a centrist ala Bill Clinton.

Sen. John McCain must think female voters are stupid or easily distracted. That’s about the only reasonable explanation people can discern from his selection last week of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket.

Obama’s presidential election, with historic help from Hamilton County, led local news in 2008

1776, 1865, 1945, 1968 and now 2008. There are some years that stick out in American history as significant turning points, with events occurring that are so momentous even those living through them know they’re witnessing history.